1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a new and improved emergency life support system for use in providing users in enclosed areas with exterior fresh air, and more particularly to a new and improved emergency life support system and method of providing fresh air which include a breathing mask, a source of exterior air, and means for attaching the mask and source of fresh air to enable people in enclosed areas to survive during dangerous and/or emergency conditions. The system can either be portable or permanently affixed to an exterior air supply.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
In various enclosed areas, e.g., vehicles such as airplanes, as well as hotels and other buildings, hazardous and occasionally deadly conditions arise under emergency situations. These often occur as the result of fires in buildings or aircraft which create the presence of toxic and lethal fumes. Injuries and fatalities relating to these fires are often attributed to asphyxiation rather than burning. While such dangerous conditions can occur in all enclosed areas, some of the most complex and hazardous circumstances arise in flight on board aircraft. Personnel and passengers have no escape route and generally inadequate supplies of firefighting equipment. Additionally, present ventilation equipment and emergency oxygen equipment do not serve to significantly dilute or reduce toxic agents which are present in a smoke filled aircraft cabin.
Recent accidents have caused the death of numerous passengers and crew members aboard aircraft in which fires have broken out, even though the airplanes were able to land. This is due to the limited amount of oxygen available within a cabin once noxious and other dangerous fumes enter the enclosed cabin area. Existing oxygen supply systems, several of which are described in the patents discussed hereinafter, are inadequate to provide a significant displacement or dilution of toxic agents under such circumstances, because they will permit the fumes from a cabin to be directly inspired into the oxygen masks of passengers and crew members. Even when passengers and crew members are able to satisfactorily evacuate an aircraft in a fire or other emergency, it has been found that such safe escape or evacuation can take upwards of ten minutes, dependent upon the damage and obstructions which exist and the coordination among the passengers and crew. In one recent case, a jet airliner landed four minutes after fire was discovered on board the aircraft, yet most of the crew and passengers were already asphyxiated from the hazardous fumes on board. Another airliner recently made a successful landing in only twenty minutes after fire was discovered on board, and there were no survivors, all deaths being attributed, upon an initial investigation, to similar asphyxiation. In most cases, at conventional altitudes, the occupants of aircrafts cannot open windows for ventilation in order to receive air exterior to the aircraft, although at lower altitudes there are some methods which are known for ventilating aircraft by opening doors during flight.
In firefighting situations, it has been known to provide firemen and other firefighting personnel with the use of compressed air or oxygen. Although this method has proven effective when the users have access to appropriate protective garmets, it is not a practical method for use by the general public in enclosed areas, either in aviation or non-aviation environments. It is clear that this problem relates both to enclosed stationary structures, e.g., buildings, as well as moveable aircraft, but it is also clear that problems relating to smoke, fire, and noxious fumes on board an aircraft, where there is little access to fresh (conditioned) air from a location exterior to the aircraft, are far more dangerous.
Even though by law, most passenger aircraft are equipped with an emergency oxygen system, i.e., oxygen masks attached to pressurized oxygen containers, such systems are unsuitable and not recommended for use in the event of fire or smoke. On one hand, conventional emergency aircraft oxygen systems only supply a limited quantity of oxygen, e.g., three minutes, for fully occupied aircraft. Secondly, the oxygen which is supplied is intended to augment and enrich the air which is available in the aircraft, and therefore, through an oxygen mask, aircraft personnel (other than the cockpit crew, who generally have access to pure oxygen) and passengers are supplied mainly ambient cabin air in conjunction with the oxygen. These systems are intended and designed mainly for situations in which there are sudden and rapid losses of cabin pressure. None of these systems provide a simple method of ventilating the interior of an aircraft cabin with fresh or conditioned air from the exterior of the aircraft. "Conditioned air" is understood in the industry, and used in this application, as referring to pressure and temperature controlled fresh air brought in from the exterior of the aircraft. "Fresh air", "exterior air", and "conditioned air" are used interchangeably herein. As expressly referred to in the applications of which this application is a continuation-in-part, the air supplied can either be bleed air or ram air.
In fact, the Civil Aeronautics Board, in a recent brochure, recommends that if there is fire or smoke in a cabin, the recommended passenger procedure is to lie down and place a cloth over their faces to minimize the inhalation of noxious and other fumes.
Accordingly, despite laws and regulations which require that all pressurized aircraft have emergency oxygen equipment for sudden depressurization of aircraft cabins, and that portable oxygen equipment be provided for emergency use by crew members and passengers, particularly in first aid situations such as cardiac arrests, there is no present apparatus for providing protection for passengers and crew members within an aircraft cabin in the event of smoke or fire on board the aircraft. This is true even though fire extinguishers and lifevests are provided for passenger safety during emergencies such as fire and emergency water landings.
Nor do the patented devices which relate to the protection of firemen, other workers and aircraft passengers and crew members provide protection in the event of fire or smoke within an aircraft cabin.
RENTSCH, German Patent No. 1,139,747, discloses an automobile ventilation system which is intended to prevent a driver from inhaling carbon monoxide fumes while he is driving. The system includes a vent connected to air or oxygen outside of the automobile, a tube for conducting the air or oxygen vent to a mask, and the mask, which is placed on the user's nose so that he can avoid breathing in undesirable carbon monoxide.
CUPP, U.S. Pat. No. 2,655,150, discloses breathing apparatus for utilization on aircraft. It comprises a main mask body which includes sponge rubber spacer blocks, a rebreather bag formed of sheets and adapted to be provided with a supply of breathing fluid, e.g., compressed oxygen or air, and an inlet tube. The assembly is provided to a passenger who can unfold the mask and attach the inlet tube to a rubber tube at one end, the rubber tube then being attached to a supply of oxygen or air under pressure. The mask is held by a head band about the head of the passenger. The inward flow of compressed breathing fluid through the inlet tube causes the rebreather bag to become inflated prior to inhalation by the wearer. When the user begins to inhale, the rebreather bag partially collapses and ambient air passes inwardly through the porous walls of the mask to the user. Upon exhalation, the exhaled air passes outwardly through the porous mask walls and the rebreather bag is filled with oxygen from the inlet tube. The entire apparatus is designed to be formed from inexpensive plastic materials which can be conveniently disposed of after a single use.
PANIAN, U.S. Pat. No. 958,427, discloses apparatus for assisting firemen engaged in fighting fires in smoke-filled areas. A face mask is provided for placement on a user and is maintained thereon by a head strap. A hose is connected at a first end to the face mask and at a second end to a bellows and a chamber. Air from the free atmosphere adjacent a tube opening passes into a chamber and into the expanding bellows, air passing from a corresponding collapsing bellows into a second chamber into the tube and the mask. After inhalation, the air which is passed to the user is passed outwardly from the mask through exhaust ports. This provides the user with a source of fresh air exterior to the area in which he is fighting a fire in which noxious fumes may arise.
POTASH, U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,730, discloses a system for providing a passenger in an aircraft with oxygen. The system includes a protective mask and a hose connected to the mask and to a collective a protector. The protector includes a source of purified air which can be supplied or forced through a path which is formed by a hose, a coupling, a cannister, and a protective mask. A quick disconnected coupling is provided for allowing a user of the mask to quickly separate himself from the oxygen or pressurized air supply system.
NELSON, U.S. Pat. No. 3,347,566, discloses apparatus for allowing industrial workers to easily breath in atmospheres in which noxious or inflammable conditions exist. In such areas protective face masks are worn which are connected to flexible tubes or pipelines to convey to the mask, from a source exterior of the working area, either pure air or oxygen. The breathing fluid supply lines are generally flexible and are connected to a regulator which is attached to a harness on a worker. The device illustrated in this patent provides an easily detachable breakaway coupling assembly adapted to permit a fleeing worker to disconnect himself from the breathing tube and enable him to evacuate an area as rapidly as possible, even in situations in which he does not remember to positively disconnect himself from the fluid breathing system.
BLOOM et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,158,153, disclose a generally conventional passenger oxygen mask assembly. An oxygen supply line is connected, via a tubing, to a flexible bag, which serves as an oxygen reservoir, as well as to a face mask, which is connected to the other end of the bag or reservoir. A valve is provided for mixing ambient cabin air from the aircraft with the oxygen fed via the supply line and tubing. The reservoir of oxygen maintained in the flexible bag provides an immediate oxygen supply to a user.
DARROW, U.S. Pat. No. 1,323,217, discloses a ventilating mask for use in hosiptals. The mask is adapted to be connected to tempered or conditioned air of the appropriate temperature and humidity which is delivered to a T-element from a source which is not illustrated. The air is then fed via tubing to the mask. This serves to provide individual patients in a hospital with a satisfactory ventilating system while preventing the surrounding, generally unsterile atmosphere from entering the breathing cavity of a patient.
HERMAN, U.S. Pat. No. 2,284,053, shows a generally conventional gas mask which provides a plurality of expandable bellows arrangements. The bellows device comprises either a rubber ball, an accordian-like generally cylindrical apparatus or a triangular-shaped accordian-like apparatus, all of which are designed to apply additional air to a gas mask. The device includes body attachment straps for both the face mask and the bellows portion.